QUESTION:

Which action threshold for roach control requires fast, extensive, and sometimes costly control measures?

ANSWER:

I may not entirely understand your question Ryan, but I am assuming you are asking about what level of an infestation could be considered a serious enough problem to require extra effort. We may refer to the "threshold level" for any pest as that level of a problem that now warrants spending time eliminating the pest, rather than leaving it alone and suffering minor damage. This is okay if we are dealing with white grubs in a lawn or aphids on the roses. A low level of these pests will cause such minor damage that it would cost more to initiate a control program with pesticides than just to leave the pests alone and put up with really minor problems.

Cockroaches may be a little different, as that single cockroach in someone's soup in a restaurant is one roach too many, and the management of the restaurant could suffer serious economic problems if that roach causes a lawsuit or their restaurant to be closed by the health department. I don't know if this then says that the Threshold Level for cockroaches is 1 roach, but if a restaurant finds a single cockroach I think this should cause them to begin a roach control program, even if it is only an intensive inspection to determine what the level of the problem is there. To find one or two cockroaches (German) and ignore it hoping it will go away on its own would be foolish, and with their breeding potential a couple of roaches could result in dozens of roaches in a couple of weeks, or hundreds of roaches in just a few months. Just to play with numbers, but recognizing that the reality is that this could not normally happen, if a single female German cockroach carrying an egg capsule were brought into a filthy account, and all of the offspring bred at their full potential for a year and survived the whole time, the result could be something like 63 million cockroaches at the end of a year.

Because of this potential perhaps the Action Threshold for the German roach should be that single cockroach, especially knowing that if you have seen one there probably are many more hiding somewhere that are not visible, but which are sneaking out at night to forage and contaminate things. We could even say the same thing for an apartment - if you know there is one German roach there would it be good policy to ignore it, or better to jump in at that time with monitoring  and inspecting to determine if this is a loner or just the tip of the iceberg. For that matter, commercial accounts like restaurants would be foolish to not have a pest control service full time, at least monitoring and inspecting on a regular basis so that any incoming roaches could be discovered as soon as possible and eliminated before they are a full blow infestation that is now causing serious health problems or concerns.

In the apartment we know that allergies and asthma are major concerns for people living with roaches, so keeping them out completely should be the goal. The sooner you can get started eradicating the small population the sooner it will be accomplished and the smaller the health concerns the roaches could create. The bigger the population the more time that will be needed to remove them and the more materials you will have to use to do so.

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